Monday, May 6, 2013

The Counterterrorism Caucus of the state Legislature announced today evidence collected against the Oklahoma chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations and its ties with an Imam who has supported terrorists in the past.

At its recent annual banquet, Imam Johari Abdul-Malik, Outreach Director of the Dar Al-Hijrah Islamic Center in Falls Church, Va., delivered the keynote address at CAIR’s banquet. The Dar Al-Hijrah Islamic Center was identified in the 9-11 Commission Report as the mosque frequented by several of the 9-11 hijackers.

James Lafferty, chairman of the Virginia Anti-Sharia Task Force, had this to say about Abdul-Malik: “In his public statements, Abdul-Malik demonstrates regularly his contempt for the rule of law and his support for terrorist acts against America ... and praises those who have attacked our country and attempted to kill the President of the United States. No American should honor this man or his disgraceful words and behavior.”

A letter from VAST included links to newspaper articles which cited several incidents from Abdul-Malik’s past:

- He defended Ahmed Omar Abu Ali, a Dar Al Hijrah, member who is serving a life sentence in a federal prison for nine counts of terrorism including a plot to assassinate President George W. Bush, kill members of Congress and bomb restaurants, nightclubs and other public places across America.

- He also defended Ali Al Timimi, a Muslim cleric of Fairfax, Va., who was convicted in April, 2005, and is serving a life sentence in a federal prison for counseling others to wage war against the United States and use firearms and explosives in furtherance of violent crimes.

- He was often cited as the spokesman for the Dar Al Hijrah mosque and he used his position there to defend numerous convicted terrorists and question the judicial system in the United States.

Past newspaper reports show Abdul-Malik’s extreme positions.

“Our whole community is under siege,” Abdul-Malik told the New York Times on Feb. 27, 2005. “They don’t see this as a case of criminality. They see it as a civil rights case, as a frontal attack on their community. The feeling I get here on a daily basis must be what it was like to be a member of Martin Luther King Jr.’s church following the case of Rosa Parks. People always ask: ‘What is the latest from the courthouse?’”

And on April 27, 2005, he told the New York Times Muslims aren’t free to speak their minds in the United States.

“There is a view many Muslims have when they come to America that you could not be arrested for something you say,” Abdul-Malik said. “But now they have discovered they are not free to speak their minds. And if our opinions are out of vogue in the current climate, we feel we are all at risk.”

State Rep. John Bennett, Counterterrorist Caucus chairman, said CAIR and other groups like it have been identified as front organizations for terrorist groups.

“In the case of U.S. vs. The Holy Land Foundation, the largest terrorist-financing trial in the history of the U.S., CAIR was identified as a Muslim Brotherhood front organization and an unindicted co-conspirator,” said Rep. Bennett-R, Sallisaw. “In fact, CAIR and several others petitioned the federal court to have their names removed from the co-conspirator list.

“But U.S. District Court Judge Jorge Solis denied their motion in a Memorandum Opinion issued on July 1, 2009. In doing so, Solis wrote: ‘The government has produced ample evidence to establish the associations of CAIR, the Islamic Society of North America, the North American Islamic Trust, the Holy Land Foundation, the Islamic Association of Palestine and Hamas.’”

Rep. Bennett added that the caucus had discovered a letter from the FBI’s Oklahoma City Field Office in which Special Agent in Charge James Finch says that the FBI cannot participate in a planned Muslim Community Outreach Program because of the “planned participation by the Oklahoma Chapter of CAIR.”

“As we have said repeatedly, we believe that the vast majority of Muslims in Oklahoma are peace-loving, productive members of society,” Rep. Bennett said. “We support wholeheartedly their constitutional right to practice their religion in peace.

“The stated, two-fold goal of the Muslim Brotherhood, however, is to establish global Muslim rule, or a ‘caliphate,’ and to replace our constitution with Sharia law. To say, as some have suggested, that CAIR is a Muslim civil rights group is simply inconsistent with the evidence. The theme of CAIR’s annual banquet this year was Upholding our Constitution, Defending our Faith. One has to wonder whose constitution they’re talking about.”